Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the response insofar as the Minister of State has stated on the Dáil record that, "There are no plans at present to change the provision of SouthDoc out-of-hours services in Fermoy and Mitchelstown." I welcome the fact that any service provision changes would have to be subject to discussion. It seems the Minister of State's response acknowledges that this is a private organisation.

The key point is that there must be transparency about any decision-making procedures where they relate to the diminution of services for a massive geographical area from the Blackwater valley, the Kerry border over to the Waterford border, covering the towns of Mitchelstown and Fermoy and any points in between. GPs have told me this is a proposal to cut off a centre by stealth by imposing guidelines about GPs who may be pregnant or over 60 years. Doing that automatically removes one-third of the capacity of the centre in Fermoy. That is unconscionable and something we must push back against. I welcome the Minister of State's response, but we are holding the Government's feet to the fire on this because it is important that we do not lose the services. I take the Minister of State to be a decent and honourable person and take her at her word, but we will continue to monitor this situation and to support section 39 employees because we want to ensure that we do not lose our GP out-of-hours services, notwithstanding the reduction in capacity.

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